


Reborn

by aadarshinah



Series: The Doctor and The Spinner [2]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bad Wolf Rose Tyler, Episode: Children in Need Special 2005 Born Again, F/M, Gen, Time Lord Rose Tyler
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2018-12-02
Packaged: 2019-09-05 20:31:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16817929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aadarshinah/pseuds/aadarshinah
Summary: Regeneration is a dodgy process. Stray bits of Huon particles make it that much worse."Born Again" sequel to "The Spinner".





	Reborn

**Author's Note:**

> So, hey, a sequel. Let's see how far my muse carries me. I'm not huge into straight series rewrites, but... we'll see what happens.

"Hello. Okay. Ooo, new teeth. That's weird. So, where was I? Oh, that's right. Arkytior." He beams at her, practically alight with fading regeneration energy and emotions she doesn't dare name, and practically runs toward her-

-only to freeze, the picture of devastation, when she scrambles backward again, hitting one of the coral struts that make up part of the TARDIS' desktop theme.

She wonders if this new incarnation of her Doctor will change it. She loves the ascetic, she really does, but it's not the most comfortable with all the crashing and falling single-pilot operation of a TARDIS can lead to. Maybe she can convince him trampolines are the next big thing? No, that reminds her too much of Cassandra. Maybe bouncy castle instead? Or marshmallow fluff? Or the mushrooms on the third moon of Ki Pri Douon X, the ones that are like jello molds but less sticky. Or- no, those are an aphrodisiac to certain silicon-based lifeforms.

Rose shakes her head, trying to clear it. So many many thoughts, so many memories - the human brain isn't designed to hold the consciousness of a Time Lord. Not enough space, wrong type of neurons.

Is she still human? The Spinner had thrown everything that made her a Time Lord into the Perversion Forge, including her memories. Looking into the Time Vortex had returned those to her... Was it possible the rest had returned as well?

She'll need the infirmary. And a lab. A proper lab with Quadruple Helix Heddles and Temporal Isolators and maybe even a Nucleic Bipolymer Jenny, and-

"Rose, it's me. Honestly, it's me. I was dying. To save my own life I changed my body. Every single cell, but... it's still me."

Rose blinks at him. Oh, she's been quiet for too long. He must have thought she had been a regeneration hallucination. Rare, that, but her Doctor had never been ordinary."I know, Doctor. I watched you regenerate, right over there." She pointed to the spot where the coral has turned almost black. "But I'm spilling Huon energy all over the place and you're still in the first fifteen hours of your regeneration cycle. Papua New Guinea, remember?"

"Belgium, actually. Well, more like Luxembourg now. Still, it's probably best to avoid holes in space-time now that I've just gotten you back." The Doctor runs a hand through his hair - and that's new. Or maybe a throwback to an incarnation she missed. She's missed so much.

"What regeneration are you on?" she asks at the same time he says-

" _How_ did I get you back, Arkytior? You disappeared right after graduation. Next thing I hear - five hundred years later, mind you - is that you've been put in charge of all the Loom Houses in Wild Endeavor. I thought you died. I thought I killed _you_ when I used The Moment-"

The Doctor cuts himself off before he can say more, dancing over to the console and pressing buttons seemingly at random - no, Rose remembers enough of her trans-temporal mechanics now to _know_ it's random.

"Never mind that! You're here now, that's all that matters. We can go to Barcelona like we always talked about. Dogs with no noses! You'd think the end result would be ridiculous, wouldn't you, but they're cuter than you might think.

"Or, I know! Cincinnati V, forty-first century! We can go to the Tiered Gardens of The Hidden Emperor for the unveiling of the golden roses! _Your_ golden roses! Roses grown from living gold! I always promised to take you there once I got a TARDIS and now here we are! Seven hundred years late, but better late than never I always say-

"Oh, look," Rose watches as his eyes fall on a dusty, forgotten lever just out of his reach, "I haven't used this one in years."

"Maybe you shouldn't-"

He pulls it.

Rose thinks that if she hadn't already been sprawled across the TARDIS' floor, she would have cracked her head on something as The Doctor throws them headfirst into the current of an unstable time stream. _Not_ how she wants to test how many of her Time Lord abilities have returned to her.

She scrambles to her feet. "What are you doing?" she screams.

"Putting on a bit of speed, that's all!"

She'd shove him away from the controls if it wouldn't blow a hole in the space-time continuum.

"My beautiful ship! Come on, faster! That's a girl!"

On second thought, The Doctor can't have _that_ much regeneration energy left in him. They had to be down to Liechtenstein by now. The space-time continuum could deal with a hole the size of Liechtenstein, couldn't it?

"Faster! Wanna to break the time limit?"

She'd have to risk it. "Doctor, stop! Something's gone wrong with your regeneration. We need to set down somewhere so I can take a look at you, or get someone to look at you so we don't accidentally tear a hole through an important part of the universe when we touch. Please, Doctor. You're scaring me."

The manic, maniacal light in his eyes disappears like somebody's flipped a switch. "Okay," he says, voice so quiet amongst the screaming of alarms that Rose has to strain to hear him. "You should probably press the blue button." Then his eyes roll up into the back of his head, and Rose bites through her tongue keeping herself from trying to catch him.

"It's always an adventure with you, isn't it?" she sighs, catching the fondness in her voice as she edges around the console, trying not to touch him as she looks for the mysterious blue button. She circles it twice before finding a tiny, glowing button that's more turquoise than anything else. "This better work."

The Doctor twitches a little as a sliver of golden light slips out from under his eyes.

"Great help, you are," she mutters and presses the turquoise button.

The cloister bell starts to ring, a great pealing of bells that brings her headache back five-fold. Rose clutches her head as the TARDIS starts to spin dizzyingly around her, timelines fading in and out of existence as the ship, her Doctor's beautiful ship, punches through time and space to reach wherever the turquoise button is meant to send them and-

-Rose falls to her knees, the coral scraping her skin raw, and it's all she can do to crawl to the strut farthest from the console and hope that the gravi-directional field holds long enough to keep from causing Liechtenstein and-

-and the TARDIS screams as she crashes into the unknown.


End file.
